Sickie Britain: Almost 3.5 million World Cup fans expected to call in sick after England game

Win, lose or draw, almost 3.5million football fans could throw a ‘sickie’ tomorrow, costing firms £350million, as England’s crunch World Cup clash and an alcohol price war lead to a massive hangover.

More than one in ten of Britain’s 30.43million working population admitted they would give work a swerve, a survey by Ladbrokes showed.

The Confederation of British Industry said: ‘We are sure employers will take a common-sense approach to the World Cup and be flexible about staff working different hours or watching the big matches at work.

‘However, there will always be some jobs where this simply isn’t possible.’

Men are more likely to consider crying off, with 14 per cent clearly hoping their bosses would be understanding, compared to eight per cent of women.

The confessions come as supermarkets have slashed beer and cider prices, leaving them much cheaper now than they were for South Africa 2010.

Calculations by The Grocer show eight of the ten most popular brands have dropped in price, with Foster’s falling 16 per cent, from £1.88 per litre to £1.57, and Carlsberg and Carling both down by more than ten per cent.

Tesco predicts beer sales will rise by 63 per cent before tonight’s match with Uruguay, compared to a normal Thursday, with party food up 40 per cent.

However, with millions more sore heads across the nation as World Cup fever grows, employment consultancy ELAS calculates the tournament could cost British businesses more than £3billion.